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Gain Dusguised as Loss

Dear Teachers,

I read this topic about "gain dusguised as loss" from The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron. It talks about one's loss during artistic pursuit. For example, when you're offered an art scholarship in another city but turn it down because you don't want to leave home. Then it goes:

"Art is the act of structuring time. 'Look at it this way,' a piece of art says, 'Here's how I see it.' As my waggish friend the novelist Eve Babitz remarks, 'It's all in the frame.' This is particularly true when what we are dealing with is an artistic loss. Every loss must always be viewed as a potential gain; it's all in the framing."

I'm confused from the very first sentence of this paragraph. What does it mean by "art is the act of structuring time"? And then, how can a piece of art talk? When this piece of art says "look at it this way", does "it" refer to art? What does "frame/framing" mean in this context?

Re: Gain Dusguised as Loss

Art captures a moment the way an artist sees it- artists are rooted in their time and their creativity reflects a view of the world. Time itself just flows, but art helps create a structure of points in time- think of the chronology of many great art museums. Framing refers both to the physical frame of the picture and means how you look at or understand a situation- like the old saying about whether you see a glass as half full or half empty, you can turn something negative into a positive experience. Art speaks metaphorically.